Would you sit across from Marina Abramović for $16,000?

The Artist is Present is perhaps the most celebrated performance art of our time. The video of Marina Abramović in red sitting silently in the center of the MoMa and meeting, among others, her ex-boyfriend Ulay while holding back tears has never ceased to go viral and has cemented the memory of Abramović's work among mainstream audiences on par with such celebrated performances as Rhythm 0 in '74 or Balkan Baroque in '97. Today, to support the cause of Ukraine and its refugees, Abramović will once again stage the celebrated performance of The Artist is Present at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, auctioning off the seats of those who sit in front of her and using the proceeds to benefit Direct Relief for Ukraine. 

The Artist is Present performance will take place on April 16 and participants will be filmed and photographed by the same photographer who documented the original performance, Marco Anelli. There are currently only two available spots left with auction prices already fluctuating between $15,000 and $16,000. The auction will close next March 25. The significance of this new performance of The Artist is Present closely touches Marina Abramović who not only has already dedicated several of her works to the theme of pacifism (one of them was Balkan Baroque, by the way) but who just in Kyiv completed the installation The Crystal Wall of Crying for the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in the Ukrainian capital.